ABSTRACT
The above clause insures against not only violent, but also furtive theft, and non-delivery of cargo.200 Cargo could, of course, just simply disappear without trace or explanation. In Cleveland Twist Drill Co (GB) Ltd v Union Insurance of Canton,201 the plaintiff’s claim was for the loss of a number of drills which they had shipped from London to New York. When the ship arrived in New York, six cases were missing, eight cases were completely empty and two were partly empty. The drills were insured under a marine policy with a clause covering all risks of theft and pilferage. As no force or violence was used, it was evident that the theft was secret, and on this Lord Justice Scrutton of the Court of Appeal noted that: ‘It is one of the peculiarities of secret theft that you do not see it happen; and that being so, when the article has disappeared, how are you going to prove that it is a loss by theft as distinct from a loss by wrong delivery?’
